WALK – We invite
all our members and their friends to join us for a
walk-about in the Diep River area.Date & Time: SUNDAY 10 JUNE at 14h30Details: Meet on the corner
of Gie Rd and Parklands Main Rd. There is a circle at the
intersection with a fuel station/garage on the southwest
corner with parking available just alongside in Parklands
Main Rd (next to a development called Manhattan). We will
gather on the verge in front of the garage at 14h30 sharp.
Please wear comfortable walking shoes, bring binoculars if
you have them and a small snack. The walk will be
approximately 2 hours. We look forward to meeting Sandiso
Kraai, our new TMF funded conservator, who will show us the
area and the work he is doing.

TALK – We invite
all interested to come and see/hear a presentation to be
given by the three nature conservation students who are
working at Rietvlei this year. They will introduce their
research projects for the year.Date & Time: TUESDAY 26 JUNE at
19h30 for 20h00Details: Meet at
the Education Centre at Rietvlei, off Sandpiper Rd, Table
View.

For any queries on the walk or talk please contact Pauline
on 083 255 2537 or info@friendsofrietvlei.co.za

AGM REPORTBACK

We had an excellent
turnout for our recent AGM which was also attended by a
number of visitors. In addition to the existing committee
members, who agreed to stand for re-election, we are
fortunate in having gained Niel van Wyk as an additional
committee member. Niel was responsible for setting up our
excellent and user friendly new website, which we encourage
members to visit frequently as it is always being updated by
Niel with current news and photographs.

We once again urge members to offer the committee their
assistance with the various projects that are always on the
go and which would benefit from your help. Perhaps you would
like to assist with conservation, or fundraising, or keeping
an eye on our indigenous garden? Are you a keen birder? Many
of our members would love to go for walks with someone who
is a keen birdwatcher. So why not contact any one of the
committee members if you would like to take a more active
role in supporting Friends of Rietvlei!

Fish
Mortalities – December 2006

At our AGM we had a
presentation given by Niel van Wyk on the fish mortalities
in Rietvlei in December 2006. An estimated 80 tons of dead
fish were removed from the vlei, and there has been much
speculation on what caused this massive die-off. Analysis of
the water at the time has confirmed that a drastic drop in
oxygen levels was the reason for the fish dying off. It is
interesting to note that only species that cannot survive in
low oxygen conditions were affected, but the carp
populations were virtually unaffected. Eutrophication in
estuaries is a natural phenomenon. It is a result of the
very essential and very complex primary productivity
processes occurring in the estuary. Estuaries are highly
productive ecosystems and nutrients inevitably build up over
time and get trapped in deep-water areas like Rietvlei. It
was this build-up of nutrient levels that led to increased
algal growth and an eventual decrease in oxygen levels in
the water. Although there was no direct pollution causing
this particular die-off, inflow of water with high nutrient
levels from the Diep River and Potsdam sewage works over
many years will also have contributed to increased levels of
nitrogen, phosphates, etc in Rietvlei. This will have
contributed to the eutrophication process. And what about
the poor fish – although it was sad to see so many fish die,
we need not be too concerned that natural populations were
affected negatively. The species involved were mostly grey
mullet and sea harder, both are marine species and are well
represented out at sea. They are prolific breeders and the
young will enter the Diep River estuary during spring and
early summer and will no doubt re-establish populations in
Rietvlei.

ADVERTISING
SPACE

If there are members who would like the opportunity
to advertise in our newsletter, please let us know.
You may have a business or property that you wish to
advertise at an affordable cost and by advertising
in our newsletter, you will be assisting us with
raising funds for our conservation projects. We
particularly want to raise more funds for the Diep
River project. Please contact the treasurer, Pat
Titmuss, on
pat@friendsofrietvlei.co.za or 021 557 3748 a/h
for further information.

WEBSITE USAGE & EXCITING NEWS

Our new website became
operative early in July 2006, since then the site has had
more than 2600 unique visitors. (A unique visit is one
viewer visiting and navigating through the website – hits
would be much higher because it counts each time a viewer
visits a page, and some hit counters will count components
on each page as individual hits; but this is not really a
true reflection of the number of visitors as one visitor
could be recorded as 50 hits). The highest number of
visitors we had was in October 2006 (388), but since then we
have been recording an average of 250 visitors a month. The
website needs information and input from members to keep it
interesting. We would love to have photographs, news items,
or anything that you think will be interesting. Although we
cannot update the website every few hours like the news
sites, we would like to make it more interactive and thus
more interesting for our members. CONTACT NIEL VAN WYK ON
niel@bluecape.co.za
with your contributions. WEBSITE
www.friendsofrietvlei.co.za

KEEP UP WITH RIETVLEI INFORMATION! ********* You have
probably seen the newspaper coverage but there was great
excitement when the rare bird Wilson's Phalarope,
Phalaropes tricolor, was spotted at the Dolphin Beach
ponds section of the reserve. See the photos on the
website!!

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

Another payment of your
subscription is required at this time of the year. Our
financial year closed at the end of March, so it is time
again to support our organisation with your money. Life or
Ten Year members do not have to pay but all Ordinary, Family
and Corporate members do have to. You received a renewal
form with the March newsletter so please make your payment
ASAP if you haven’t done so yet – Thank you to all the
members who have already paid!

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
CENTRE

We are concerned that the
centre is not being used enough for school outings so if you
know of a school or class wanting to visit Rietvlei please
email the details to
info@friendsofrietvlei.co.za or phone Pat on 021 5573748
a/h.

Royal Ascot
Environmental Management Committee

The Royal Ascot
Environmental Management Committee (EMC) meets regularly and
the committee consists of representatives of the following
organisations: City of Cape Town, Friends of Rietvlei,
Milnerton Ridge Residents Association, Royal Ascot Master
Property Owners Association, Botanical Society of South
Africa, Gold Circle, Environmental Conservation Manager.The
committee was originally established to ensure that
developers and contractors in Royal Ascot adhere to the
environmental requirements as set out in various
Environmental Management Plans. Now that the development
phase is reaching its final stages, the committee has more
time to focus on the management of the very important
conservation area which is situated within the perimeter of
the old race track.The Friends of Rietvlei is represented on
this committee as the development and future activities in
the area could impact on the Rietvlei Wetland Reserve. The
main concern has been the possibility of pollutants from
development activities entering the Diep River or Rietvlei,
but rigid application of environmental protection measures
by the Environmental Site Officer, in particular ensuring
that contractors adhere to these measures, has prevented any
negative occurences.

Highlights of the past year:

1.

The
committee revisited its constitution and at the end
of 2006 accepted a revised constitution that will
meet the future requirements of the committee more
adequately. The previous constitution was originally
drawn up at the start of the Royal Ascot development
and laid more emphasis on the development aspects of
Royal Ascot. The revised constitution makes better
provision for conservation management.

2.

The
most important development has been the acceptance
of an Environmental Management System for the
conservation area. The conservation area is small,
less than 20ha, but it has more than 250 plant
species of which at least 12 are threatened species.
The Environmental Management System clearly sets out
policies and management objectives, it incorporates
manuals on management procedures, establishing and
maintaining a database, as well as assessing and
reporting back on procedures. Other conservation
areas could benefit by adopting a similar management
system.

3.

The
environmental management and consulting firm
Planning in Balance have been contracted to manage
the conservation area. They were also responsible
for the Environmental Management System.

4.

At
the meeting at the end of March 2007 the committee
was informed that the conservation area has now
finally been transferred to the City Council.

The implementation of the Environmental Management System
and the establishment of an environmental database to ensure
successful and efficient management procedures, is a high
priority for the committee for the coming year. The
committee will be monitoring the final residential
developments in the northern portion of Royal Ascot, as well
as keeping an eye on future developments on the still vacant
plots next to Racecourse Road. The future of the racecourse
precinct along Koeberg Road, while no cause for concern at
this stage, is also on the agenda.

Thanks go to Chevron Refinery for
sponsoring envelopes for the posted newsletter.